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Tours > Gloucester > Deerhurst The Tiny Chapel of Odda's Lost Palace
Deerhurst The Tiny Chapel of Odda's Lost Palace
Directions: It is
difficult to tear yourself away from such
a remarkable building as St. Mary's in
Deerhurst, but just down the road is yet
another. Follow the signs to Odda's
Chapel.
Odda's
Chapel is a tiny Saxon chapel now built
into a medieval timber-framed farmhouse
which obscures the eastern chancel. The
building is a simple two-cell structure
with characteristic Saxon long and short
quoins. It is very plain inside, but
retains its original chancel arch and a
number of Saxon windows. Its importance
was only recognised in 1885, despite the
fact that an important stone inscription
was found nearby some two hundred years
before. A copy is on display:
"Earl
Odda had this Royal Hall built and
dedicated in honour of the Holy Trinity
for the soul of his brother, Aelfric,
which left the body in this place. Bishop
Ealdred dedicated it the second of the
Ides of April in the fourteenth year of
the reign of Edward, King of the English." [12th
April 1056]
Odda is a
well known figure of the period. He was
Earl of Hwicce and a captain of the Royal
Fleet, not to mention, a kinsman of King Edward the
Confessor. The stone implies
that he and his brother, Aelfric, built
(or rebuilt) a large palace complex here
which included the chapel. It would not
have been unlike that excavated at
Cheddar (Somerset). Both men are known to
have died at Deerhurst and to have been
buried in Pershore Abbey.
Next Stop: Magical
History Tour
Related Pages:
Saxon
Churches |
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